The Breitmann Ballads | Page 5

satire on everything German, has
found very few supporters, and it is with the
greatest gratification that
he has learned that educated and intelligent Germans regard Hans as a
jocose burlesque of a type which is every day becoming rarer. And if
Teutonic philosophy and sentiment, beer, music, and romance, have
been made the medium for what many reviewers have kindly declared
to be
laughter-moving, let the reader be assured that not a single word
was meant in a bitter or unkindly spirit. It is true that there is always a
standpoint from which any effort may be misjudged, but this standpoint
certainly did not occur to the writer when he wrote, with anything but
misgiving, of his "hearty,
hard-fighting, good-natured old
ex-student," who, in the
political ballads and others, appears to no
moral disadvantage by the side of his associates.
Breitmann in several ballads is indeed a very literal copy or
combination of characteristics of men who really exist or existed, and
who had in their lives embraced as many extremes of thought as the
Captain. America abounds with Germans, who, having received in their

youth a "classical education," have passed through varied adventures,
and often present the most startling paradoxes of thought and personal
appearance. I have seen bearing a keg a porter who could speak Latin
fluently. I have been in a beer-shop kept by a man who was
distinguished in the Frankfurt Parliament. I have found a graduate of
the
University of Munich in a negro minstrel troupe. And while
mentioning these as proof that Breitmann, as I have depicted him, is not
a contradictory character, I cannot refrain from a word of praise as to
the energy and patience with which the German "under a cloud" in
America bears his reverses, and works cheerfully and uncomplainingly,
until, by sheer perseverance, he, in most cases, conquers fortune. In this
respect the Germans, as a race, and I might almost say as individuals,
are superior to any others on the American continent. And if I have
jested with the German new philosophy, it is with the more seriousness
that I here
acknowledge the deepest respect for that true practical

philosophy of life -- that well-balanced mixture of stoicism and
epicurism -- which enables Germans to endure and to ENJOY under
circumstances when other men would probably despair.
Breitmann is one of the battered types of the men of '48 -- a person
whose education more than his heart has in every way led him to entire
scepticism or indifference -- and one whose
Lutheranism does not go
beyond "Wein, Weib, und Gesang." Beneath his unlimited faith in
pleasure lie natural shrewdness, an
excellent early education, and
certain principles of honesty and good fellowship, which are all the
more clearly defined from his moral looseness in details which are
identified in the
Anglo-Saxon mind with total depravity. In such a
man, the
appreciation of the beautiful in nature may be keen, but it
will continually vanish before humour or mere fun; while having no
deep root in life or interests in common with the settled
Anglo-Saxon
citizen, he cannot fail to appear at times to the latter as a near relation
to Mephistopheles. But his "mockery" is as accidental and naif as that
of Jewish Young Germany is keen and deliberate; and the former
differs from the latter as the drollery of Abraham a Santa Clara differs
from the brilliant satire of Heine.

The reader should be fairly warned that these poems abound in words,
phrases, suggestions, and even couplets, borrowed to such an extent
from old ballads and other sources, as to make acknowledgement in
many cases seem affectation. Where this has appeared to be worth the
while, it has been done. The lyrics were written for a laugh -- without
anticipating publication, so far as a number of the principal ones in the
first volume were concerned, and certainly without the least idea that
they would be extensively and closely criticised by eminent and able

reviewers. Before the compilation the "Barty" had almost passed from
the writer's memory, several other songs of the same
character by him
were quite forgotten, while a number had formed portions of letters to
friends, by one of whom a few were
published in a newspaper. When
finally urged by many who were pleased with "Breitmann" to issue
these humble lyrics in book form, it was with some difficulty that the
first volume was brought together.
The excuse for the foregoing observations is the unexpected success of
a book which is of itself of so eccentric a character as to require some
explanation. For its reception from the public, and the kindness and
consideration with which it has been treated by the press, the author can
never be sufficiently
grateful.
CHARLES G. LELAND
London, 1871.
CONTENTS
HANS BREITMANN'S BARTY
BREITMANN AND THE
TURNERS
BALLAD
A BALLAD APOUT DE ROWDIES

THE PICNIC
I GILI ROMANESKRO
STEINLI VON